Mearns’s Turn

“I think if you are a true artist, passionate about your art form, who can’t imagine life without it, you are kissed with this curse of always trying to do your art form justice, create the beauty it deserves. It’s our job as performing artists to give the audience a taste of that passion — to let them fall into that world.” says New York City Ballet principal dancer Sara Mearns, who is featured in this month’s Playbill as we gear up for A Dancer’s Dream: Two Works by Stravinsky at the end of June. Learn  how she’ll be transforming into an Ice Fairy and a marionette when she appears with Alan Gilbert and the Phil by clicking here.

Dreams Do Come True

“It’s been a dream of mine to perform with an orchestra like that. Classical music for me, now, is equal to classical ballet. You can’t have one without the other.”

—  New York City Ballet principal dancer Sara Mearns talks with Classical TV about her collaboration with the Philharmonic on the upcoming multimedia production A Dancer’s Dream: Two Works by Stravinsky. 

We’ve enjoyed seeing Sara at the concerts she’s attended all season, but we can’t wait to welcome her as a guest performer. Stay tuned for more. 

(Chris Lee photo)

Sweet Lovers Love the Spring

In 1958 Leonard Bernstein and the Philharmonic took to the Colorama Ballroom in Brooklyn’s Hotel St. George to offer up a rendition of The Rite of Spring, a work Lenny described as “only one of your everyday volcanic masterpieces … a miraculous new creation of such originality and power that still today it shocks and overwhelms us.” The recording remained one of the landmark renditions of the work and a highlight of the Phil’s discography.

On April 30, this riotous Rite returns to circulation when it is remastered and re-released on Sony Masterworks. It’s available to pre-order now on Amazon.com — in honor of which we delve into the Digital Archives for a more quiet riot as one violinist begs for mercy in a climactic bit of the score.

Start Your Search Engines

Leonard Bernstein conducted the Philharmonic in Stravinsky’s The Rite of Spring 25 times, and now you can get a sneak peek into Lenny’s creative process: Today the New York Philharmonic Digital Archives released 520,000 pages of marked instrument parts (reflecting the interpretations of the likes of Bernstein and Toscanini), completing the first phase of efforts to digitize the extensive Philharmonic Archives, with 1.3 million pages now online.

Catch a live webcast with Philharmonic Archivist/Historian Barbara Haws from the University of Michigan on ”Digitizing 170 Years of the New York Philharmonic Archives” tomorrow at 12 p.m. EST for the inside scoop.

Put a Spring Back in Your Fall

Available for download today — the first release in the series Alan Gilbert and the New York Philharmonic: 2012–13 Season, featuring the season-opening performance of Stravinsky’s The Rite of Spring. The recording captures Music Director Alan Gilbert’s first performance of the landmark work with the Orchestra, described by The New York Times as “a ‘Rite’ so lucid and lean it sounded newly wild and ingenious.”

The new release is the first of 12 recordings scheduled to be drawn from concerts this season. It’s available for download from all major digital download services, and also available for streaming on Spotify. 

What are you looking forward to most in the coming Philharmonic season? The Rite of Spring, on tomorrow night’s opening program? The Bach B-minor Mass in March? CONTACT!? Manny’s Mozart, or Rouse’s World Premiere? The all-Stravinsky season finale, with Sara Mearns? Get a sneak peak at Superconductor blogger Paul Pelkonen’s picks in his article that will appear in this month’s Playbill.

The ‘Rite’ Stuff

Stravinsky’s ballet The Rite of Spring did not appear to have the “right stuff” during it’s first performance, when it caused a riot in the concert hall. Quite the contrary. It was a “spectacular flop,” as the The New York Times reports in an extensive feature on the now less-than-shocking work that is poised to turn 100.

We urge concertgoers to leave the rotten tomatoes and boxing gloves at home this Wednesday when the Philharmonic performs The Rite of Spring as part of its Opening Night Concert. 

Hold on Now, Igor

We know you can’t wait, but in just four weeks, the 2012–13 season opens September 19 with Alan Gilbert conducting your Rite of Spring for the first time with the Philharmonic. The Music Director bookends the season, closing in June with your Petrushka and The Fairy’s Kiss, in a staged production featuring New York City Ballet principal dancer Sara Mearns. And we’ll visit your Ragtime, during June Journey: Gilbert’s Playlist.

So get ready, the countdown begins: the box office is now open.

(Source: composersandcupcakes, via alittleurbanmusician)

Season Kickstarter

The New York Philharmonic gets the party started as Music Director Alan Gilbert’s first performances of Stravinsky’s Rite of Spring with the Orchestra kick off the 2012-13 season in performances September 19-22. Get in the mood by brushing up on the history of this riot-inducing work, and learn more about the program that includes Beethoven and Kurtag works with pianist Leif Ove Andsnes.